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Care for children travelling alone with Air France

On the eve of the busy school vacation period, discover a convenient service for children travelling alone with Air France.

Every year, 400,000 children travel alone with Air France to join their family and friends in France and abroad. To facilitate their travel, Air France offers a ‘UM’ (unaccompanied minor) service which looks after children from the beginning to the end of their trip.

This service is available for young people from 4 up to the age of 11 on flights within France and the French Overseas Departments, and for young passengers from 5 up to the age of 14 on international flights.

Prepare your trip on: airfrance.com

To benefit from the UM service, it is essential to request this service and specify that your child will be travelling alone when booking the ticket.

On airfrance.com, it is now not only possible to book the ticket*, but also complete the travel file and print it out at home and present it at check-in. This travel file contains the child’s exact itinerary, the surnames, addresses and telephone numbers of parents and people in charge of welcoming and accompanying your children at their destination. All the necessary information is therefore clear and parents have more time to devote to their children at the airport.

At the airport, unaccompanied minors are priority passengers: they are accompanied by a member of Air France ground staff, who ensures they board on priority and introduces them to the cabin crew who supervise them at all times throughout the flight. Air France asks families to plan for their child to check in at least 30 minutes before the latest check-in time and accompanying persons to not leave the airport until the child’s flight has taken off.

On landing, the child is met by a ground agent at the door of the aircraft and accompanied to meet the person waiting for them. The ground attendant checks that the identity of the person waiting for them corresponds to the information in the child’s file.

A service also available for young people

At the parents’ request, the ‘UM’ service is also available for young passengers from 12 up to the age of 18 on domestic flights, and for young people from 15 up to the age of 18 on international flights.

This service is particularly popular among young passengers with a connecting flight. Some 50,000 teenagers benefit from this service every year.

Every year, Air France carries close to three million young passengers between 0 and 12 years old. Among them, 400,000 children (close to 300,000 for the domestic network alone) travel alone to join their family and friends in France and abroad, along with 480,000 infants.

*You can still book this service by telephone, at an Air France ticket office or with a travel agent.